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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614880">Quality Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savathun/pseuds/Savathun'>Savathun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tea, Talks and Tentacles. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguous Age, Ambiguous Relationships, Ben Hargreeves' Tentacles | Bentacles, Ben is alive, Filler Story, Gen, Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Open to Interpretation, Telepathic Bond, The Horror Is A Little Sus In It's Actions, Vent story, non-canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:13:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614880</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savathun/pseuds/Savathun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben has a chat with The Horror and learn just a little more about himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben Hargreeves &amp; The Horror</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tea, Talks and Tentacles. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864624</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Quality Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ok so listen I've had this sitting in my draft for ages, it's literally nothing plot-line.<br/>This did start as tentacle porn between Ben/The Horror hence the sus actions of the tentacles but I gave up cause no one would like it.</p><p>most likely spelling mistakes as well.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>"Ben, you must come forward you poor souls, c</em>
  <em>ome stand with us at the edge of the abyss, h</em>
  <em>ear us out in the darkness of beauty, you must l</em>
  <em>isten to the whispers of violence we give you, u</em>
  <em>nderstand with us the true path, r</em>
  <em>each out into the darkest pits of your mind, we can c</em>
  <em>leanse out your sins in the hands of us, come a</em>
  <em>pproach the jaws of the seeker, you must a</em>
  <em>rise anew, ar</em>
  <em>ise with our salvation, a</em>
  <em>rise with the darkness around you,, s</em>
  <em>alvation speaks to us of anew world, l</em>
  <em>et it destroy you, l</em>
  <em>et it destroy us all"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ben stays quiet as he listens to Them, his mind black and nothingness, he floats above a pit of water that holds the hands of children begging to be birth in the womb of women abused by the poles of fragile men, he cannot scream, he cannot help as he floats above his own demise, another voice speaks to him, booming loud and screaming at him without malice, it comes with an offer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You must understand why we strive for this, w</em>
  <em>e are not enemies, w</em>
  <em>e are the ones to save you even after death, d</em>
  <em>on't go far into the light or everything corrupts, f</em>
  <em>ear nothing as we descend together, d</em>
  <em>eath comes for all and nothing can stop it, f</em>
  <em>ree your sins, f</em>
  <em>ree yourself and walk with us in the starlight encased in the inferno, walk with us Ben, we offer all, you will be brought to us in a way that will shatter the realities between us, an old man in a young body will spilt the atoms and you will be bathed in my arms, do not follow that man who bought you, do not listen to the one who names himself one"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Another voice again, a dim light is greeted in front of him and he feels a tentacle wrap around his neck, another two around his legs and one shoving itself inside his skin, his blood is black and his scream is nothing as he feels no pain, he feels only warmth.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"In time death will come for you, in time you will feel betrayal, in time we will save you, we are one, we will become salvation"</em>
</p><p>It's an occurring dream and dialogue that happens every time he sleeps and yet he doesn't know what it means and he doesn't want to know what it means.</p><p>Ben wakes suddenly as his window shakes loudly, the wind is kicking up a storm today as it passes by the city knocking everything down and out of its way, it's on a mission today for no reason as the air around it cools off and moves away, the trees outside his window shake and shiver with the wind, a dance between two is something he misses, his head throbs more as he sits up to grab at the water on his bedside table, his clock read 2:20am and the darkness of his room is brighter, The Horror beneath him rumble and push against him, he hisses when they clip the inside of his stomach, a tentacle mixing with his intestines usually makes him sick.</p><p>"<em>Let us out</em>" The Horror speaks to him with a quiet tone yet demanding as it continues to push it's tentacles against his intestines, it doesn't mean to harm him it just wants warmth.</p><p>"No" Ben replies back, his father forgot to mention the telepathic bond that comes with an Eldritch portal inside your stomach so the first time he heard its voice in his head he panicked big time and looked like an idiot in front of his family, the older he got the more he understood it was The Horror speaking to him and not his mind going snap on him.</p><p>"<em>We are not asking you, we are demanding you</em>" The Horror pushes its tentacle against his liver, a rumble of laughter when it hears Ben hiss in slight pain.</p><p>"And I'm demanding you to shut up" Ben huffs back as he sips his water, both refreshing him and The Horror, which only answers back in another push against his liver.</p><p>Ben rolls his eyes at nothing as he places his water back down on the bedside and lays down, shifting once or twice to get comfy and too move the tentacle that is having an apparent sunbathe on his large intestine.</p><p>"<em>We know what you are doing</em>"</p><p>"Then move so I can sleep"</p><p>"<em>Wouldn't happen if you let us out</em>"</p><p>Ben genuinely laughs at that, The Horror has picked up on how to speak English along with the sarcasm to a proper understanding instead of how it used to speak, it used to speak in it's own tongue that Ben refuses to tell his Father and his siblings that he understood it and then it spoke in broken English so it's nice to see it learning.</p><p>The Horror is still leaning against his large intestine and the others are pushing and prodding at his stomach, liver and skin in a definite attempt to annoy the boy into submission to get a sense of fresh air that isn't shrouded in blood and guts and Ben finds himself fed up with the constant moving of his stomach and flips his t-shirt open, nearly getting whacked in the face by the tentacles, he watches as they spring free, each one of them moving freely in the air almost as if they breathe it and they lay themselves next to him, if anyone was to walk in they end up leaving, the fleshy tentacles rub at his face almost as gentle as his mother does.</p><p>"<em>Freedom is all we asked for and you granted us it</em>"</p><p>Ben scoffs and leans into the soft yet rough skin of the tentacles.</p><p>"Yeah because you wouldn't stop prodding at me"</p><p>"<em>A necessary evil we are afraid admit</em>" </p><p>The tentacles keep rubbing at his face as they wrap around his waist keeping him safe from what Ben doesn't know, they speak their mother tongue and Ben stills just for a second, the warmth of them is enough to make him cry as he flips to his side to cuddle into the tentacle as another goes back rubs at his back, the uncomfortable feeling of his entrails slipping out onto the bed make him shudder just for a second, his breathing is calm and his heart is still beating, the Eldritch perception filter keeps the scene of horror hidden from his family, no one wants to see their brother sleeping on his own entrails.</p><p>"Your out now so can we go back to sleep" Ben yawns, he is actually tired and a little sore because of the hole in his stomach and the un-comfy feeling of his own intestine squishing against his arm but The Horror just rumbles something that sounds angry and he shakes with the power of it, he rolls his eyes again.</p><p>A noise is heard in the hallway, it's too loud for the night and he hears Allison mutter a quiet swear but the Horror suddenly screams into his mind, it's loud and harmful as Ben grabs his head and curls into his own body, himself screaming out that he's sorry but all he can hear is a thousand voices in his head the echoes and echoes of there voices on-top of each other, screaming of a salvation over and over again, screams of death, the screams of a bond that will be kept and broken.</p><p>"Stop stop! Please, it hurts!" Ben cries out and the world around him is encased in silence as he opens his eyes to find the tentacles laying quiet on him, the smell of copper is always with them whenever they get too close to Ben's nose but during time he has grown used to the smell, even with his own blood that he lays in, he brings a hand to the tentacle that is closet to him and strokes it like it's a cat.</p><p>"<em>We apologise, we heard a threat"</em></p><p>The Horror returns the stroking motion back as it strokes his thigh, a slight jump from the boy underneath.</p><p>"Not the thigh, just my arm, just stroke my arm please" Ben grits out once the tentacle got too close for comfort and breathes when it retracts to his arm, the warmness is always with them as well, he'd always expect a cold touch, a touch with a bite but instead its gentle with him as much as it can be.</p><p>"Allison isn't a threat, she's just blind in the dark" Ben asks once he realises what The Horror had said to him. </p><p>The Horror shakes it tentacle and pulls itself back from Ben, it stares him down, even with no eyes it looks threating as it looks Ben up and down almost sensually but Ben gets that image out his head quickly as he closes his eyes to pretend he's going to sleep, it works as the tentacle lays back down just to slowly move up and wrap itself around his neck, never pressing too hard.</p><p>"<em>We see all in the dark, we see through you</em>" The Horror laughs when Ben sputters on his word, almost as if he never knew the bond between Eldritch beings and Humans work both ways, Ben can see into their dimension and The Horror can see into his.</p><p>"Tell me why I never knew this"</p><p>"<em>Your Father has hidden what you are from you</em>"</p><p>Ben opens his eyes to a fairly light room as the moon pokes her moonlight between the cracks of his blinds, he can see the tentacles that slither between the bottom of his legs, he can feel the ones basically holding his hands, he can feel the ones that are still inside him, feel the pressure of the one slightly choking his neck in a manner that is innocent.</p><p>"So how do you know this? I don't see you talking to Dad" </p><p>The Horror if it could, smiles, it releases his hold on Ben's neck and slithers to wrap itself around his waist, squeezing softly and goes between his thighs to squeeze again, this motion is watched carefully by Ben but the tentacle only repeats the action twice before laying back down on his stomach, dipping into the blood and entrails that have taken seat first.</p><p>"<em>It is within you we have learned, we can tell you more or is it a secret you never wish to know"</em></p><p><em>"</em>Um no, tell me, it's my body as much as it is yours"</p><p>The Horror shifts again, it's always been shifty Ben has noted, always looking for something to grab onto, something to hold, something to squeeze as it talks to himself or the unlucky ones who have been dealt with the voice of his own and The Horror as it tares into the bodies like piranha's on land, Ben has noted that there seems to be a main tentacle, he was called dumb by Luther for saying it once, but there is always one that takes more movement and finds itself entangled in Ben's body more.</p><p>"<em>You are a doorway, a doorway that opens both sides, one full of humanity and one full of beasts, a boy who can commune with us all as we can commune with you, a boy who lets us see through him, a telepathic bond between us that is older than time itself, a boy who can hold not a door but a world inside him, that is what you are, that is what we are</em>"</p><p>Ben is silent for a long while after, the wind is silent, the house is silent and the world is silent as he lays facing eyes up towards the ceiling, the tapestry that Klaus put up is as still as it can be in the frozen air as the tentacles still themselves as well almost afraid to move, but they move anyway when Ben shuffles himself to get comfy once again and speaks with a quiet tone.</p><p>"Wow"</p><p>"<em>Are you not afraid?"</em></p><p>A simple question holds Ben's mind once again as he struggles to find the answer in his mind, it's a lot to take in after having a dream that felt like a memory, a memory buried by his Father's words and training to make him a monster, to control the beasts inside him, which he can do if he asks nicely but he plays his Father like a fiddle and pretends that they are too strong, hard to reason with when they get along with him more than he does with his family.</p><p>"Not afraid, just shocked, I just know that he'll ask me to summon more beasts, I just know it, more training as well, can't be forgetting that one" Ben speaks with a hard truth as he feels the tentacles extract back inside him, the main one staying out for longer as it comforts him, wiping the tears that fall from his eyes and then hiding back inside his stomach, scooping up his entrails and blood just encase someone walks in.</p><p>"<em>We will keep you safe, no harm will come to you and we will kill those who dare</em>"</p><p>Ben sleeps and the dream <strike><em>(memory) </em></strike>replays itself once again.</p>
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